Tag Archives: anti-drinking campaigns

This week, we wanted to showcase a few professional approaches to what we’re trying to achieve here through this blog with some anti-drinking campaign advertisements run by the government.

The Australian Government in particular have been pushing a number of hard-hitting “in your face” ads in the last few years with the hope of making an impact on the numbers of binge-drinkers in the country, particularly those who are of a young age. The ads are aimed at those aged between 15 and 25 years, and they demonstrate the violence, humiliation, and injury that binge-drinking can lead to.

The theme of the campaign is “Don’t turn a night out into a nightmare”. We’re sure you’ve probably seen a number of these ads air over television already, and possibly online or at movie theatres Did they seem like they were effective at promoting their message to you? Do you think they were “in your face” enough to actually have an impact?

Here’s one advertisement run by the Australian Government that aired last year. How effective do you think it is? Did it make you care at all watching it, or leave you with any thoughts or feelings afterwards?

Alternatively, we wanted to show you a different approach to an anti-drinking campaign that you may not have seen before. This campaign was run in New Zealand, and takes an entirely different approach with the theme of the ads – instead of scare-tactics, these ads take a more light hearted approach with an effort to incorporate humour into the advertising and message. Do you think the comedic aspect of these ads still manages to get the point across? Take a look:

Did the comedy make this ad more appealing to you? Do you think it still got it’s point across well, or was it too light-hearted to be taken seriously? We’d love to hear your thoughts on these campaigns, and if you’ve seen any ads that you think were effective – please tell us about them. Sometimes media advertising can be the best way to spread a message quickly and extensively, but there’s no point if that message isn’t clear or is being ignored.

Lastly, we wanted to leave you with a little bit of fun – here’s a Don’t Turn a Night Out into a Nightmare flash game. In this simple, government-funded game, you choose a character impersonation of yourself and progress along in a board-game-like fashion through a typical “night out” scenario, making choices along the way that can alter how well (or not) your night of partying ends. Will you make responsible choices? Will your night out bring you back home safely after a good time, or will it end in regret? Let us know if your “night out” turned into a nightmare!